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REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE #2: Weapons of Influence

As a technical staff member, I have to use Weapons of Influence on a daily basis. I interface
daily with about a 12-18 staff members working across five different projects. I also manage a
contract on the East Coast for a computer based simulation Trainer using graphical and GIS
technology. I have customers is three states, one on the West Coast, two on the East Coast and
partner with two Aerospace firms both on the East Coast. It can be quite hectic at times, and
since our main customer has a fairly onerous project management style, getting things done
requires a lot of persuasion.

My latest experiment involves influencing one of my Managers to engage with a new Project
Manager regarding an Engineering documentation project. The Project Manager is new to his
job and under severe time constraints to produce results. One of our young Engineers working
on this project has over-committed on the amount of work scope needed to be accomplished by
our organization. I was asked to assess where we are with the documentation project and how to
align our current resources with the work that needs to be done.

Using a Commitment and Consistency approach, I outlined a written three step plan and
provided it to the Manager and the young Engineer for their review. In it I outlined three critical
steps towards helping this Project get on the right track. They are:

Develop Strategy to define what the mission is and who will be served by the Project
Develop Tactics to define methods for defining our role on team and our contribution
towards its success
Develop a Path Forward for I mplementation to define how the job will get done
including roles and responsibilities for each primary stakeholder.

Both my Manager and the young Engineer signed off on the plan and tasked me to move forward
its implementation. The first step of my plan was successful the next step was getting
commitment from the new Project Manager.

Using Reciprocity and Liking, I approached the new Project Manager during a conference call
with him and his contractor team. I discovered he was a retired US Army Lt. Colonel, he used
to be a parachute jumper, and hes a football fan (the Washington Redskins). I shared some
project management ideas I had borrowed from Bill Walsh, the former head football coach of the
San Francisco 49ers. He authored two books on Leadership, one called Finding the Winning
Edge the other The Score Takes Care of Itself.




In these books Coach Walsh explains how he implemented his Standard of Performance and
provides 10 Leadership Lessons which he used to turn the 49ers organization into a Super Bowl
success. I shared two of the rules with the Project Manager:

Developing a Successful Team Starts with Developing a Successful Culture
The Leader Sets the Tone

Mission Readiness and Mission Accomplishment are very important to military personnel. Bill
Walshs ideas resonated with him. In our next conversations we began a serious discussion on
the Purpose of the project and what the various options were to get it accomplished. I sent the
Project Manager excerpts from the book The Score Takes Care of Itself which he liked enough
to purchase for himself.

Within two meetings, I was able to gain enough of his trust to take a leadership role in the
Project and start the process of sorting out what tools are needed for the project to successful. A
subsequent working meeting was scheduled for July 17. Here we presented our ideas for
developing a Web Portal for storing and disseminating data for the Project Team. We were able
to focus on developing high level capabilities and objectives which I believe gives the team a
reasonable chance at being successful. We were also able to reduce our organizations work
scope and spread the work more evenly across the Project Team. There is still a lot of work to do
but in one day we were able to sort out a number of underlying issues and to define a Mission
Statement that the team agreed to.

My experiment had very interesting results. Borrowing ideas from Tom Peterson (see
assigned reading - Brand Integrity) I was able to garner the support of my Manager and Co-
workers who helped sell my initial idea. Using a few simple Weapons of Influence a message
was developed and delivered to different target markets (my co-workers, the Project Manager,
the Project Team) with the goal of persuading them to define our projects Mission and establish
goals and objectives.

The truth is every manager and leader is at some point Marketing ideas to their peers, their
staff, or their external customers. Often Leadership requires Marketing, and depends heavily on
an individuals abilities to identify problems and solutions. Whether the market being influenced
is large or small, understanding whats important to your customers and communicating your
message effectively will help determine your level of success.

One other aspect of Influence which should be discussed more is being a good Follower. During
the experiment I had to support the young Engineer who was the main point of contact with
the Project Manager. Together we worked on my proposal. He provided a number of useful
insights about how to approach the customer and what his main concerns were. I needed to be
influenced by his ideas so I could learn from him and together we could find a way of getting
this Project back on track.

My sense is that Weapons of Influence are used constantly in large and small ways. Their
overall affect depends on the skills of the users and the willingness of the target market to listen
and be influenced. Hopefully for good purposes, but that depends on your point of view I guess.

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